Proceedings of the HYDRALAB III Joint User Meeting, Hannover, February 2010

EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE HYDRODYNAMIC

LOADS AND WAVE ELEVATION ON CONCENTRIC VERTICAL CYLINDERS
Spyros A. Mavrakos(1), Ioannis K. Chatjigeorgiou(2), Thomas Mazarakos(3) &
Dimitrios Konispoliatis(4)
(1) School of Nav. Arch. & Mar. Engng., NTUA, Greece, E-mail: mavrakos@naval.ntua.gr
(2) School of Nav. Arch. & Mar. Engng., NTUA, Greece, E-mail: chatzi@naval.ntua.gr
(3) School of Nav. Arch. & Mar. Engng., NTUA, Greece, E-mail: tmazarakos@naval.ntua.gr
(4) School of Nav. Arch. & Mar. Engng., NTUA, Greece, E-mail: dconisp@mail.ntua.gr

The paper aims at presenting the objectives and some first results of an experimental campaign
entitled Measurements of hydrodynamic forces and motions on concentric vertical cylinders
that has been carried out in CEHIPAR, Spain, within the HYDRALAB III Transnational
Access Activities program supported by the EU. The project contained a series of
experiments concerning concentric cylinders arrangements. First- and second order exciting
wave forces and wave elevations at specific locations around the bodies have been recorded,
analysed and compared with pertinent numerical predictions. Representative experimental data
and their comparisons with numerical predictions will be presented in the following, together
with the description of the experimental program.
1.

INTRODUCTION

The experimental campaign is dealing with the evaluation of the first- and second order
hydrodynamic exciting forces and wave run up on single concentric cylinders arrangement as well as
on arrays of them when they are exposed to the action of mono- and bi-chromatic wave trains. The
geometric configuration of the single body consists of an exterior partially immersed toroidal structure
of finite volume supplemented by an interior piston like, free-surface piercing truncated cylinder, see
Fig. 1.

Fig.1: Schematic representation and physical model of a two concentric cylinders arrangement
In this way, an internal free surface is formed that is totally enclosed between the cylinders and
open to the exterior fluid domain beneath the bodies. This internal fluid domain, which in the present
case is of annular form, is usually referred to as moon pool and represents a characteristic feature of
bottomless floating bodies having consequences both from the theoretical and the practical point of
view. In the last years an increasing interest on such type of structures is reported especially in
connection with their use as wave energy converters or as oscillating water columns (OWC) devices
for the extraction of energy from waves (Sykes et al., 2007). Furthermore, in the offshore field of
applications several types of vessels are frequently constructed with moon pools.

Proceedings of the HYDRALAB III Joint User Meeting, Hannover, February 2010

The fundamental hydrodynamic properties of isolated truncated hollow cylinders have been
investigated some time ago (Garrett, 1970; Miloh, 1983; Mavrakos, 1985, 1988) using matched
axisymmetric eigenfunction expansions. Mavrakos (2004) extended the formulation to the linear
hydrodynamics of concentric cylinders, whilst Mavrakos et al. (2009) tackled the corresponding
second order diffraction problem around this type of structures. All previously mentioned studies
showed that crucial parameters for the hydrodynamic behavior of concentric cylinders are among
others the radial extend of the annulus between the internal and the external structure, the draughts of
the bodies, the shape of the interior body, as well as the wall thickness of the exterior cylinder. Thus,
scope of the present experimental campaign is to investigate in more details the effect that these
parameters has on the hydrodynamic behavior of single or multiple interacting arrays of concentric
cylinders.
2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPERIMENTS

In accordance with the scope of the proposal, seven different configurations of concentric cylinders
have been tested. The first four concern concentric cylinders of the type shown in Fig.1 The radius b 2
was kept constant, equal to 0.5m, whereas two variants of the internal cylinder radius were chosen, i.e.
b1 = 0.2m and 0.4m, and two variants also of the external radius of the toroidal body, i.e. b = 0.6m and
0.7m. The draughts of the internal and external cylinders were kept constants, being equal to 0.4m and
0.5m, respectively. The next two configurations consist of external torus with the same as previously
radial dimensions and draughts, but with internal body configured as a compound vertical cylinder
(Fig.2). It has a small radius at the waterline equal to 0.15m and a large radius at its bottom equal to
0.30m. The submerged depth of the small cylinder is 0.14m, whereas the height of the submerged
large diameter cylinder equals also to 0.14m. All the models were constructed at the workshop of
CEHIPAR.

Fig. 2: Physical model of the compound cylinder and schematic representation of the 6th configuration
Finally, a multi body arrangement of concentric vertical cylinders has been tested. It consisted
of three piston-like assemblies that have been arranged transversal and quarterly to the direction of the
incoming waves. The distance of the bodies axes were set equal to 2.0m, whereas as individual
concentric cylinder arrangement was selected the one corresponding to the dimensions of the third
configuration given above with an internal cylinder radius equal to 0.4m and an external torus radius
equal to 0.6m.
Exciting wave forces and moments, as well as wave run-up have been measured on both external
and internal cylinders. The recorded data were analysed to obtain first- and second order components
of the associated hydrodynamic quantities. The wave run-up was measured at three locations on the
wetted surface of the external cylinder and three locations on the interior.
3.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND NUMERICAL PREDICTIONS

Representative experimental results for the first- order exciting wave loads and their comparisons with
corresponding numerical predictions for the second configuration are given in Figs. 3 and 4.

Proceedings of the HYDRALAB III Joint User Meeting, Hannover, February 2010

CONCENTRIC CYLINDERS CONFIGURATION 2

RAO FXO

CONCENTRIC CYLINDERS CONFIGURATION 2

RAO FZO

30000
8000
7000
6000

20000
S=0, H=180
NTUA

15000
10000

5000

RAO (N/m)

RAO (N/m)

25000

S=0, H=180
NTUA

4000
3000
2000

5000
1000

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

0.0

1.0

2.0

Te (s)

3.0

4.0

5.0

Te (s)

Fig. 3: Horizontal and vertical first order exciting wave forces on the external torus
CONCENTRIC CYLINDERS CONFIGURATION 2
RAO FZ

2500

3000

2000

2500

1500
S=0, H=180
NTUA
1000

2000

RAO (N/m)

RAO (N/m)

CONCENTRIC CYLINDERS CONFIGURATION 2

RAO FX

S=0, H=180
NTUA

1500
1000

500

500

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

0.0

1.0

2.0

Te (s)

3.0

4.0

5.0

Te (s)

Fig. 4: Horizontal and vertical first order exciting wave forces on the internal torus
A very good comparison between the numerical and experimental data can be obtained. Also the
wave periods of the resonant fluid motions inside the moon pool, which corresponds to the spikes of
the curves, are well captured by the numerical predictions.
Measured and computed mean second-order drift forces in regular waves for the same as above
configuration are given in Fig. 5. A good correlation between the measured and the computed values
can be also in this case reported.
EXPERIMENTS

Mavrakos Total

8000,00
7000,00

Fxd [N/(H/2)^2]

6000,00
5000,00
4000,00
3000,00
2000,00
1000,00
0,00
0,00

0,50

1,00

1,50

2,00

2,50

3,00

3,50

4,00

4,50

5,00

Fig. 5: Mean second-order forces on the external cylinder, 2nd configuration

Experimental data with their associated numerical predictions for the time-harmonic second-order
forces on the external cylinder are given in Fig.6. The numerical demonstrate the occurrence of two
peaks in range of investigation. The first (high wave frequency peak at =5.19rad/s) occurs at exactly
the first-order resonance and obviously affects the second-order contributions. The second peak is
induced due to the second-order components and occurs at =3.69rad/s. The fact that the second peak
is not excited at exactly the half of the first peak frequency is something that requires further
investigation. This feature was discussed recently by Mavrakos et al (2009) through extensive
numerical calculations which exhibited the same behavior. Finally, in Fig. 7 the measured and

Proceedings of the HYDRALAB III Joint User Meeting, Hannover, February 2010

computed second order wave run-up on the exterior cylinder is given over several azimuthal
directions. The results compare also here very well.

Fig. 6: Time-harmonic second-order forces on the external cylinder.

Fig. 7: Second order wave run-up on the exterior cylinder.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work has been supported by European Community's Sixth Framework Programme through the
grant to the budget of the Integrated Infrastructure Initiative HYDRALAB III within the Transnational
Access Activities, Contract no. 022441.
REFERENCES
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thickness, Applied Ocean Research, 7, 213 324.
Mavrakos, S.A. 1988. Hydrodynamic coefficients for a thick walled bottomless cylindrical body
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Mavrakos, S.A.2004.Hydrodynamic coefficients in heave of two concentric surface-piercing
truncated circular cylinders, Applied Ocean Research, 26, 84 97.
Mavrakos, S.A., Chatjigeorgiou, I.K. 2009. Second-order hydrodynamic effects on an arrangement of
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